ITB exhibition: “Golden” summer for Greek tourism

With a strong presence, modern and fresh images of destinations unknown to the average German, from Samothraki and Tzoumerka to Lake Plastira, attractive tourist packages but also the promotion of classic favorite tourist destinations such as Crete, Greece participates renewed in the International Tourism Exhibition ITB in Berlin, which ends today.

After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, ITB is back, opening its doors this year only to industry representatives. It is the largest exhibition of its kind worldwide, which also in the case of the Greek tourism industry, which has acquired its own strong “brand name”, offers important opportunities for contacts and new agreements with tour operators, airlines and other representatives of the German and international tourism.

With 75 exhibitors from across the spectrum of the tourism sector, which represents 25% of Greece’s GDP, the large-scale and interactive multimedia-enriched Greek pavilion is one of the busiest and most talked-about areas of this year’s ITB, reflecting the serious effort of many years of the Greek tourism sector.

Greece is consistently high on the tourist map

The news about Greek tourism in Berlin is extremely pleasant and promising. “Greece expects this year an increase of 10% compared to 2022, based on the reservations so far, provided of course that there will be no extraordinary events that can overturn the plan,” said the General Secretary of Tourism Policy and Development Olympia Anastasopoulou.

As demonstrated by this year’s ITV, Greece remains firmly in the top five destinations in Europe. It is in fact the “number 1” destination for tourist investments in Europe, according to Olympia Anastasopoulou, emphasizing that 8 out of 10 tourist investments in Europe concern Greece. Greece, with its new tourism strategy, now emphasizes the temporal and spatial extension of the tourist season to twelve months, and indeed not only on the well-known islands but throughout Greece.

“Greece is not only Mykonos and the Cyclades, it is the inland, the Peloponnese, northern Greece, the Ionian,” she characteristically says. In fact, the burden now also falls on the development of new forms of tourism, such as the tourism for elderly persons and pensioners, medical tourism or the attraction of digital nomads, providing a series of incentives. It is worth noting that Greece traditionally places special emphasis on the German tourist public and in this light Mrs. Anastasopoulou – representing the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias who did not travel to Berlin – also met with the German coordinator for Maritime Economy and Tourism Dieter Janetsek from the Greens, emphasizing issues of environmentally friendly tourism and sustainability.

The shadow cast by the Tempi disaster

From then on, however, the shadow cast by the tragedy in Tempi was also heavy on the ITV exhibition. Olympia Anastasopoulou expressed her deep sadness for the train accident, but, as she noted, “we are still here to work for tourism”, a sector that is a “source of joy and optimism” for Greece. “The state has assumed its responsibility for Tempi and has already taken the appropriate actions so that it does not happen again in the future and that the responsibilities are attributed to them in their entirety,” he said after a question from DW. He even underlined that “the country’s image will not be tarnished” because Greece has an “excellent level of tourism service provision”.

On the other hand, there is widespread sadness and concern, especially among local organizations and businessmen, about possible effects on the image of Greece among the tourist public. There are areas e.g. in Thessaly that have been using the train in recent years for interesting sustainable and economical tourist packages of alternative routes and the latest developments are causing concern for their future. The cancellations of foreign tourists after the painful accident in Tempi are of course nil to minimal for now, however everyone in the region – and not only – hopes for a quick restoration of the network with immediate implementation of its digitization.

As reported to DW by exhibitors from Alexandroupoulis and Kavala, to Thessaloniki, Thessaly and Epirus, the bitter truth is that everyone has known for a long time that the Greek railway network, especially in the periphery, is discredited in contrast to e.g. modern road junctions of Egnatia or Ionia Odos. As it is also a given for the tourist world that foreign tourists do not prefer the train in Greece for many reasons: either because they don’t know about it, or because they arrive directly by air to their destinations, or because they rent cars.